Mysterious Bones

The Story of Kennewick Man

When two young men who were sneaking into a boat race accidentally uncovered a skeleton along a bank of the Columbia River in Kennewick, Washington, in 1996, they had no idea of the impact their discovery would have. The bones were those of one of the oldest and most complete skeletons ever recovered in the U.S. and led to one of the most important archaeological controversies of modern times. Kennewick Man transformed long-held theories about the colonization of the Americas and sparked a nine-year battle pitting scientists against Native American tribes for control of the remains. Time line, glossary, chapter notes, bibliography.

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Kennewick man is one of the oldest and most complete skeletons ever discovered in the Americas, setting off a legal battle between forensic anthropologists, who wanted to test his bones, and Native American tribes, who viewed him as an ancestor, whose bones needed to be reburied quickly. Illustrated.